Billy in the Wars

Billy in the Wars is the illustrated memoir of ex-Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, recalling his experiences as a young boy growing up in wartime Britain.

Bill brings history to life through the personal lens of his childhood memories, where grim anecdotes of war are punctuated by moving moments of childhood innocence and joy. Three-year-old William George Perks (now Bill Wyman) was living with his parents and brother in working-class Sydenham, South London, when war broke out.

Over the coming years, he experienced endless terrifying hours spent in air-raid shelters, the constant droning of doodlebugs overhead, a near miss with a German fighter bomber, and evacuations from London to new rural adventures.

Out of a backdrop of constant fear and hunger, Bill learned the importance of persistence, courage and resilience; values that ultimately led him out of his neighbourhood and on to a vast and exciting future.